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<br />Ms. Ricci thanked the Green Practices Committee for all their work and looking to move them <br />into a commission position. She noted that the large recyclable containers are available. For <br />the Green Practices Committee, they would love to have you sign up to do the rain barrels as <br />well to help us go Green. Mr. Ricci found it very interesting that she can’t win for losing. She <br />said “Less than a year ago I said I was in the minority on Council and there were <br />Councilmembers who stood by and watched while I was singled out and criticized. It is a new <br />day and I am supposedly on some majority and now I am the bad guy for being on the other <br />side too.” She gave an example of her access to electronic e-mail, she stated that there were <br />those on Council that jumped on to a conspiracy theory. She noted that she as a <br />Councilmember has a right to information to help her to make better decisions. Ms. Ricci said <br />she accessed that information with full knowledge of the City Manager and did what anyone <br />else on the Council could do. She said the talk is that she accessed confidential information <br />but some members of the Council have no idea because they have not asked her. Anything <br />she saw was copied to the City Manager and there was no conspiracy but provided her with <br />information to do a better job. One of the things she found was information she had been <br />requesting for over a year, a list of our employees by class, by grade, what they earn, their <br />name and when they were hired in an Excel format. She was told it was too difficult for the City <br />to provide that information for they would have to stop everything they do to get that <br />information. Ms. Ricci said it was not provided to her in an Excel spreadsheet she had asked <br />for making it difficult for her to use the information. In her computer access, she located an <br />Excel spreadsheet she had requested along with the .pdf version of the document that was <br />sent to her, only it had a valuable column deleted when compared to the Excel version. That is <br />what she saw. She said, “That every question I have asked, every question I have made has <br />been with the broad view of the City. Somebody said “gotcha” there were no gotcha’s in the <br />last meeting which I thought was very interesting. It reminds me when I try cases, how five <br />people can look at the same thing and they see something different. If you go back over that <br />tape, you can hear that I said, I don’t intend to put you on the spot, you can get back to me at a <br />later date. These were just questions I had. There were no gotchas. This was a budget <br />meeting for budget questions. I want you to measure me and every Councilmember from this <br />point forward and want you to ask yourself are you here on someone else’s agenda or are you <br />here knowing the facts and wanting to know more of the facts. If you are here for the gotchas, <br />then shame on you. If you are here to help us to make better decisions, then I welcome you <br />with open arms. I have been here to answer anybody’s questions whether you believe in what I <br />am doing or not. I have never, not returned anybody’s phone call. If you have questions of me, <br />I invite you to call me. If you are promoting someone else’s private agenda, that will not do any <br />of us any good. We are a community of 37,000 in a very difficult time and we need all of the <br />positive energy and good work we can get.” <br /> <br />Mr. Crow asked the City Manager, reiterating his request from the last Council meeting, if he <br />can get an update of where we are at with Wash U, and officers and police department, as to <br />what we are going to do at Ames Place. He said he asked that at the last Council meeting for <br />an update. He questioned whether or not we are going to enforce zero tolerance as he <br />received twelve emails on Saturday and he cautions once again that this is going to spiral out <br />of control as far as homeowners of Ames Place and Portland Place are all being concerned <br />about the noise in their neighborhood. Whether or not they are reporting to the police or not, <br />we have been put on notice several times that the noise in the neighborhood is excessive. He <br />agreed whole-heartedly that is not a monolithic neighborhood and there will be some folks that <br />will say the noise is not that bad but at some point in time number one, we need to enforce the <br />laws on our books, number two we need to move forward with Wash U - are their police <br />officers going to step up or not. Mr. Crow stated there needs to be a meaningful dialog with <br /> <br /> 11 <br /> <br />